Battle of Fredericksburg

The Battle of Fredericksburg was a a major American Civil War battle which was fought from 11 to 15 December in the important transportation link of Fredericksburg, Virginia, located halfway between Washington DC and Richmond.

Following the Battle of Antietam, George B. McClellan was relieved of command of the Union Army of the Potomac by President Abraham Lincoln, who appointed Ambrose Burnside as his successor. In November, Burnside planned to lead the 114,000-strong army across the Rappahannock River at Fredericksburg and race to the Confederate capital of Richmond before Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army of Northern Virginia could stop him. However, he was delayed by bureaucratic issues, as the pontoon bridges he demanded did not arrive until December.

By the time the pontoon bridges arrived, Lee's army had risen to 72,500 troops, and they took up positions on Marye's Heights overlooking the town; Stonewall Jackson commanded the Confederate right flank at Prospect Hill, while James Longstreet commanded Marye's Heights. Burnside turned Chatham Mansion into his headquarters - it had served as the quarters of Lee's wife 30 years before. On 11 December, Union guns began to shell Fredericksburg, setting the town on fire. Union troops then started across the river, and the Confederates allowed for them to cross, as retreating over the river would be hard. Union troops looted the town, and, on 13 December, they launched the major assault on Marye's Heights. Lee's artillery under John Pelham covered all the approaches, and four lines of riflemen were positioned behind a stone wall along the base of the hill. Edward Porter Alexander assured Longstreet that even a chicken could not live on the field when the Confederates were done, and the Confederate artillery and infantry inflicted heavy losses on the Union troops, despite the bravery of the Union's Irish brigade, who got within 25 paces of the wall before their fellow Irishmen from the 24th Georgia shot them down. Brigade after brigade was mown down during the failed massed bayonet assaults, and 14 assaults were defeated as 9,000 men fell before the Confederate guns. The next day, the weeping Burnside decided that he would lead a new attack, but his subordinates talked him out of it. The Union were again forced to retreat, and the Confederates believed that the rare sight of the Northern Lights over Virginia was a sign that God was celebrating their victory.